World Cup 2010 By The Numbers

This World Cup edition was full of excitement, amazing long-range goals, and a psychic octopus!

During this edition of the World Cup, there were big winners such as Spain, a country that gets for the next 4 years to call itself the World Cup Champion. Another big winner, at least on Twitter, was Holland with the TT: ‘Hup Holland Hup’.

There were also losers such as Galvão Bueno, a famous Brazilian narrator and broadcaster, fellvictim of a huge twitter phenomenon when millions of twitter users told him to shut up during the 2010 World Cup opening show. The phenomenon soon became a worldwide joke.

Here is a breakdown of the World Cup 2010 by the numbers.

8
Goals Spain scored in their seven games in South Africa, a record low for a World Cup champion

60
Percentage of the time defensive-minded Spain held the ball during its matches, also a record

14
Numbers of yellow cards issued during Spain’s final brutal match with the Netherlands

700 million
People worldwide who watched the World Cup championship game, according to FIFA

3,085
Tweets posted per second at the height of World Cup activity, a new high for Twitter

8-for-8
Paul the “psychic” octopus’ record in predicting World Cup matches. After his statistically unlikely run, the cephalopod is reportedly retiring from the prognostication racket.

$38,000
Sum offered by a Spanish businessman to rent Paul for an upcoming food festival in the small village of Carballino. “Paul, should he attend, would be on the special events program and not on the menu,” say reports.

$5.6 billion
Amount spent by South Africa to host the games, including building and renovating 10 stadiums. (Other estimates suggest the real figure is closer to $8-$11 billion.) “Officials believe when everything is counted the country will break even,” reports the Toronto Sun.

130,000
Jobs created in South Africa by the event (though many of them were temporary construction gigs).

0.7
Percentage “Bounce” to the GDP that a country enjoys after a World Cup win, according to a 2006 study. “With unemployment hitting 42.9 percent among 16 to 24-year-olds, Spain’s World Cup victory could not have come at a better time,” says James Montague at CNN.

500,000
Estimated number of foreign visitors who traveled to South Africa for the World Cup, exceeding an earlier estimate by 200,000, according to the Finance Ministry

3.1 million
Total number of people who attended the 64 tournament matches — thethird highest figure in history

40,000
Police officers on duty at the World Cup sites to ward off criminals

172
Cases heard by the special criminal courts created by South Africa forWorld Cup. Most were “trivial like the theft of England’s underpants and the cannabis smoking of Paris Hilton’s friend.”

1,432
Days until the next World Cup kicks off in Brazil for the World Cup 2014